There are seven dispensational period of human civilization based upon Old and New Testaments.

The seven dispensational periods

Dispensationalism seeks to address what many see as opposing theologies between the Old Testament and New Testament. Its name comes from the fact that it sees biblical history as best understood in light of a series of dispensations in the Bible. Most dispensationalists cite seven dispensations although this is not a critical or foundational factor to the theology:

1. the dispensation of innocence (Gen 1:1–3:7), prior to Adam's fall,

2. of conscience (Gen 3:8–8:22), Adam to Noah,

3. of government (Gen 9:1–11:32), Noah to Abraham,

4. of patriarchal rule (Gen 12:1–Exod 19:25), Abraham to Moses,

5. of the Mosaic Law (Exod 20:1–Acts 2:4), Moses to Christ,

6. of grace (Acts 2:4–Rev 20:3—except for Hyperdispensationalists and Ultradispensationalists), the current church age, and

Adventist is someone who lives in our current times with the belief of Second coming of Jesus.

Definition of Adventist:

n. A member of any of several Christian denominations that believe Jesus's Second Coming and the end of the world are near. [thefreedictionary]

Seventh-Day Adventist is the one who believes that the humainty is at the threshold of the approaching seventh dispensational period.

Definition of Seventh-Day Adventist:

n. (Protestantism) Protestant theol a member of that branch of the Adventists which constituted itself as a separate body after the expected Second Coming of Christ failed to be realized in 1844. They are strongly Protestant, believe that Christ's coming is imminent, and observe Saturday instead of Sunday as their Sabbath. [thefreedictionary]

It is with this impending seventh dispensation that a school of thought took its origin in United States just after the birth of Hirzat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad in 1835 in India.

Founding of the Seventh-day Adventist Church:

William Miller (1782-1849), a Baptist preacher, forecast the Second Coming of Jesus Christ in 1843. When that did not come to pass, Samuel Snow, a follower, did further calculations and advanced the date to 1844. After the event did not occur, Miller withdrew from leadership of the group and died in 1849. Ellen White, her husband James White, Joseph Bates and other Adventists formed a group in Washington, New Hampshire, which officially became the Seventh-day Adventist Church in 1863. J.N. Andrews became the first official missionary in 1874, traveling from the United States to Switzerland, and from that time the church became worldwide. [about.com]

The irony is that Christians alike the Muslims believe in bodily return of Jesus i.e. “the Lord” for the former and “son of Mary” for the latter. Unbeknownst to most of both, Jesus returned and went who identified his advent with the Seventh-Day spanning a thousand years of the current social evolutionary stage of human cycle on the earth, which we read in his writings. The relevant portion and the declaration of the Messiah is excerpted below that he delivered as a lecture in an inter-faith setting:

…because the world is not to be destroyed yet, and thousands of years are left, the world's current development, inventions and comforts which the prevalent industries have introduced also indicate that God, the Great, has desired that human beings may be given material comforts and ease so that man may have a chance to progress and reform himself materially.

The spiritual condition of man has so deteriorated that it can provoke God's wrath. Sins are on the increase and human faculties have become very weak so logic demands that as in the physical domain whenever darkness wraps the earth, a heavenly light is kindled to dispel the darkness, likewise in the spiritual domain heavenly light descends from the heavens to enlighten the hearts. Because God has created man, His law is that to bring unity among human beings He raises a person from among themselves and enlightens him with the complete light of gnosis and honours him with His word and dialogue and gives him a cup of His complete love, and guides him to His agreeable path so that other persons may link up with him, and He injects a special strive in the heart of that person so that he draws others to him and thus others forge a special link with him to such an extent that they become a part of his body, and counted as such take God's gnosis through him and are saved from sins and grow in God's consciousness.

Because of this law, God Almighty has sent information through His prophets of yore that when, from the time of Adam, six thousand years will be nearing their end and the earth will be covered with the darkness of sins and God's love diminishes in the hearts of the masses of human beings, then God, from His heavens and without any earthly factors, would blow His spirit of truth and love in a person who would be called Messiah because God with His hands would anoint his soul with His personal love and he would be the Messiah of promises who has been called in God's books the Promised Messiah. The Masih-Maoud [The Promised Messiah] would be raised against the devil and there would be a last war between the entire forces of the devil and the Messiah. The devil with all his powers and progeny and manoeuvres will come prepared for this last spiritual encounter. There had never been such a conflict between virtue and evil in this world as it would be on that day, because on that day the devil's knowledge and trickery deceptions would be at their zenith, as he would bring forth all those cunnings with which he can lead human beings astray. Then after a terrible battle the Messiah would be victorious and the devil's powers would be annihilated and for some time God's awe, immaculateness and theistic glory would keep spreading on the earth, and that period would be for one thousand years which would be called the seventh day, and thereafter the world would end. And know ye all that that Messiah is myself. If you want, you may accept. [emphasis added]

The Promised Messiah continues from the above in the same essay where he outlines the seven dispensations and identifies the current, the Seventh Day, as follows:

…And at a place the Holy Quran has mentioned a sign for the age of the Promised Messiah, stating that:

"The day of thy Lord as one thousand years duration which you count" (22:47).

That is, God's one day is like a thousand of your years. So, because there are seven days, hence the age of this world has been given in this verse as seven thousand years. But this age is with reference to Adam's, whose progeny we are, as from God's word it appears that before (our) Adam the world was in existence we cannot say who were those people and of what sort were they. It appears that every cycle of this world is of seven thousand years duration, and to convey this idea a sign was affixed by restricting the week to the seven days, that every single day may refer to one thousand years. We are not aware as to how many periods have elapsed on this world and how many Adams have appeared in their own times. But God is Creator since time immemorial. We believe that in this context the world is ancient, by its own nature and right.

Alas, the Christians believe that God created the world and prior to that God was inactive and in a state of suspension and was as such since time immemorial. This belief is such that no rational mind can accept it. But the belief that the Holy Quran has taught us that God was ever since a creator, is rational. If He so desires He may destroy the heavens and the earth a million times and create it again.

The Holy Quran has informed us that Adam who came after many generations had been destroyed, was our father, the human race had been in existence much before his advent on earth and this is the chain, the age of which period has been fixed approximately seven thousand years. These seven thousand years, in God's reckoning, are just as seven days of human counting. It may be remembered in Divine law every human cycle has been fixed as seven thousand years. Therefore the age of our human race has been fixed as seven thousand years. When our Lord, Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, appeared in human history five thousand years had passed. The chapter on Time was revealed to the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, which according to alphabetical calculations showed the time that had elapsed since Adam's creation and the Prophet’s appearance on earth.

According to the chapter referred to in the foregoing lines, we are living now in the fag end years period of six thousand, not only in the form of the Holy Quran but also in previous scriptures it is written that the last messenger who would be raised in the form of Adam and name Messiah, would appear at the end of six thousand years as Adam was born on the sixth day of the week. All these signs are such that they are sufficient to convince a thinking mind. The division of these seven thousand years according to the Holy Quran and God's other books is that first thousand years is the growth and spread of virtues, and the second one thousand years is the devil's supremacy and the third one thousand years is spread of virtue and the fourth one thousand years is again devil's age, which is succeeded by the fifth one thousand years which is of virtue and goodness. This is the fifth thousand years when our Lord, Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, appeared and the devil was chained, the sixth thousand was the devil's release which started three centuries after the death of the Holy Prophet (qarun-sulasa), and ends at the advent of fourteenth century Hijrah. The seventh thousand years period is for God and His Messiah when all the virtues and good deeds would prevail. This is the period when we are living at the head of the epoch; no other Messiah dares to step up at this age. There are only seven epochs which have been divided in period of virtue and period of evil.

This division has been mentioned by all the prophets. Some have only mentioned towards thousand and some have mentioned in detail and this detail is given in the Holy Quran and the prophesy about the Promised Messiah is clearly inferable from the Holy Quran. It is surprising that all the prophets have mentioned the Messiah's epoch in one form or another in their books and also mentioned the Antichrist. There is no other prophesy in the world which has so forcefully and consistently been narrated as that of the last Messiah yet there are persons in our age who deny its authenticity. Some demand proof of the existence of such a prophesy from the Holy Quran. Alas, if they had only looked deeply into the Holy Quran they would have discovered how explicitly it is narrated in the Holy Quran that, for an intelligent person, no further explanation is needed.

After reading the above by the Promised Messiah, please read the article about Seventh-Day Adventists from Encyclopedia Britannica (link) to compare and contrast what Adventists have missed for a century while Messiah and his Seventh Day has been in their plain sight. Before it were the Israelites who missed the Messiah because they were awaiting the bodily return of Eliah, now in turn, both Christian and Muslims missed the Messiah while awaiting his bodily return. To them, we quote the Messiah from the same essay of his:

“Open your eyes and open your ears. I am surprised at your wisdom, you have targeted the bow's arrow at a distance while the prey is close to you.”

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2 Responses to “The Real Seventh Day Advent, the Adventist, the Messiah”

Besides ‘Lecture Lahore’ above, HMGA explains the seven-thousand year human cycle and its thousand years long dispensations in ‘Lecture Sialkot’ (link) as well. I have not read all the books of HMGA to find his references from Quran to support the above statements of his. In the meanwhile, as per my own opinion, the dispensations of thousand years each referred to above are alluded to in Quran for their historical existence:

3:137. Surely, there have been diverse dispensations before you, so travel in the land and see how evil was the fate of those who cried lies (to the Prophets).

Further, when HMGA refers to human cycle of seven thousand years I find the following verses of Quran supporting it:

2:30. And (recall) when your Lord said to the angels, `I am (according to My usual practice) going to appoint a supreme religious head in the land (to convey My Message to human beings and to execute My will in the universe)’. They said, `Will You create (also) therein such (people) as will cause disorder in it and shed blood while we already glorify You with Your true praise and extol Your holiness.' He (– God) answered, `I know that which you do not know.'

Obviously, in the above verse the angels, who by their very nature cannot advise but are only commenting here, are referring to their previous experience of behavior of mankind prior to the current Children of Adam who cause disorder in it and shed blood that ultimately ended before with their own respective Final Hour and accountability. If Nooruddin’s explanation in parenthesis is taken into consideration, then it seems that the human cycle of seven thousand years is the usual practice of God. Next:

2: 21. O mankind! worship your Lord Who has created you as well as those before you, that you might be secure against (all sorts of) calamities.

When Quran addresses ‘mankind’ in the above verse, then it obviously refers to the mankind, the Children of Adam, of the current seven-thousand year cycle i.e. you as well as those before you, the human cycle that occurred before Adam.

It is an interesting topic because it is the converging point in theology and time from many different religions, the Scriptures, the concept of re-advent of Messiah, the Mehdi, the Avatars, Final Hour etc.